Is there oil beneath West Michigan? Traverse City firm shows its hand by seeking state leases

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is auctioning oil and gas leases in these Michigan counties on Oct. 24.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A Traverse City firm that hopes to find oil in West Michigan has tipped its hand by applying for oil and gas leases on state-owned land.

Jordan Exploration Co. has “nominated” more than 39,000 acres of state land in Kent, Ottawa, Allegan and Ionia counties for an Oct. 24 auction in which the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will sell leases for 196,000 acres of state land.

The land proposed for state leases includes the White Pine Trail, Rogue River State Game Area, the Cannonsburg State Game Area and the Allegan State Forest.

If the leases are sold, it does not give the holder the right to drill on the land or extract oil from beneath the land, said Julie Manson, oil and gas lease management supervisor for the DNR.

While Jordan does not intend to drill on the state land, a company official said they want to control the resources beneath the land if they start drilling on privately owned land nearby.

“Sometimes you need to put their lands with other lands to form a drilling unit,” said Robert M. Boeve, a principal with the 18-year-old company.

That’s why Jordan “nominated” the state-owned land for the Oct. 24 auction, said Boeve, a Holland native who acknowledged his company also will seek leases with private land owners.

“We’re just leasing on a concept right now,” Boeve said.

Boeve said they don’t know if other exploration companies are interested in the same area. “When we go to the state lease sale, we’ll probably find out,” he said.

If they are the successful bidder, Boeve said they will conduct seismic tests to determine if further exploration is warranted by drilling exploratory wells.

If the seismic tests are encouraging, Boeve said they could be drilling exploratory wells as early as next summer. Any drilling activity has to be approved by the DNR’s sister agency, the Department of Environmental Quality.

Boeve, whose company operates some 450 oil and gas wells in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, said they are getting ready to drill an exploratory well in Allegan County’s Heath Township, south of Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the West Michigan Environmental Action Committee (WMEAC) is keeping a close eye on the auction and Jordan’s quest for leases on the state land in northern Kent County.

Nick Occhipinti, WMEAC’s policy and community action director, said they want to make sure the sites are barred from exploration activities.

WMEAC has not taken a formal position on drilling beneath the state lands, but Occhipinti said they oppose hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which pumps water-borne chemicals into sub-surface rock formations to extract the gas or oil trapped in the formations.

If they find oil, Boeve said his company has no plans to “frack” but would not rule it out. “You only frack when you need to,” he said, saying it’s cheaper to extract oil without “fracking.”

More information on these nominated parcels can be found at the DNR’s auction site or by calling 517-373-7663.

In May, an oil and gas lease auction of more than 90,000 acres of state-owned parcels netted $3.6 million for the state. Those leases included 23,000 acres of land in Barry County’s Yankee Springs Recreation Area and the Barry County State Game Area near Gun Lake.